When the time comes for you to add new articles, videos and other content to your website, you could be tempted to focus on something topical. Obvious examples of topical subjects right now would be the cost-of-living crisis and the recent monkeypox outbreak.
However, while such content certainly has its place, it could attract search volume that, though initially high, also drops fairly quickly. Hence, a lot of your attention should be on creating ‘evergreen’ content, as it would be geared towards fostering a sustained level of traffic over time.
What is ‘evergreen’ content?
What’s the test for discerning what makes content ‘evergreen’? The Digital Marketing Institute insists that “evergreen content has no real expiration date and retains its value long-term”.
So, while an article about ‘adapting to hybrid working’ could have largely short-term appeal, it would likely be a very different matter with a piece detailing ‘how to work more effectively from home’, as this subject could remain relevant even to people who are long used to hybrid working.
Why do you need evergreen content?
According to one admittedly sobering statistic shared by HubSpot, 75% of Internet users never look past the first page of search results. That poses a challenge for you as an online marketer — but posting timeless content can help you to tip the odds more in your favour.
That’s because it can help you to position yourself as an authority in your field — and, as a result, lead Google to see the content as worthy of a first-page placing.
This effect can be especially strong if you are in a genuine position to provide reliable information about the subject. For example, Google is likely to attach greater weight to a blog post about mindfulness techniques if it was written by a qualified psychologist rather than a casual blogger.
The content can take many different forms
You can widen the audience for web content by converting it into a different format. For example, some statistics that look bewildering when simply listed in a text article can be much easier to digest when displayed as part of an infographic.
Meanwhile, as marketing guru Neil Patel points out that roughly 85% of web users enjoy video content, you could see sense in hosting a few webinars. These could then be made available ‘on-demand’ through a customer engagement platform like ON24 Engagement Hub.
If you build it, will they really come?
Yes, the 1989 Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams might have given you that impression. However, even if you have created content that you imagine could always be relevant in some way, like ‘how to prepare your cat for a trip to the vet’ or ‘how to get a great job’, you could occasionally tweak and update the information contained within.
One simple reason why is that some aspects of it could still become outdated if just left alone. Another reason is that modifying an ageing piece would give you an incentive to promote it as though it is a new one.
Also Read: Top 10 Best Website Builders to Run up Your Own Small Business in 2021
